Locally Severe Storms, Perhaps Delays DC to NYC, Boston

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

September 12,2013; 8:50PM,EDT

 

 

As cool air begins to cut into surging heat and humidity from the Great Lakes to the Northeast, locally severe thunderstorms will affect some communities and may disrupt travel.
Many of the storms will bring brief gusty winds, downpours and a few lightning strikes. However, a small number of the storms can be locally severe with damaging wind gusts, hail, flash flooding and frequent lightning strikes.
During Wednesday, the storms fired around the I-90 corridor of the United States from Chicago to Albany, N.Y., northern New England and from Toronto to Montreal and Quebec City, Canada.
On Thursday, storms will reach from Pennsylvania to Maine and northern New Brunswick, Canada. after affecting part of the I-81 corridor in Pennsylvania and New York state during the afternoon, the greatest chance of regional travel disruptions and severe weather along the I-95 corridor will be during the evening.

Cities that can be impacted by a heavy, gusty thunderstorm to perhaps more severe weather include Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.
A few disruptions from locally strong storms can also occur Thursday evening over the Tennessee Valley to the southern Appalachians.
RELATED:
Severe Weather Watches and Warnings
Forecast Temperature Maps
Northeast Regional Radar
In addition to the potential for blinding downpours and flash flooding, sporadic power outages are possible.
Much cooler will sweep eastward and southward in the wake of the storms by the end of the week.

For parts of the region, a reasonable amount of rain would not be a terrible thing. Despite a wet June and July in many areas, a few locations have become dry in recent weeks.
Washington, D.C., and Scranton and State College, Pa., have only received about one-third of their normal rainfall from Aug. 1 to Sept. 11. Baltimore, Md., has received less than one-quarter of its normal rainfall in the past six weeks.
The combination of the rainfall from the storms and the cool air that follows may give allergy suffers a little break, by washing and sweeping away dust, pollen and poor air quality in general.